Glasto fans in 'crusade' against touts

Sick of pikey touts cashing in on Glastonbury, a number of renegade festival-goers have set themselves up as the unofficial
guardsmen against the re-sale of tickets over the internet.

Calling themselves the 'Glastonbury Crusaders', the shrouded group is keeping tabs on internet auction sites in a bid to
stop the trading of Glastonbury tickets - which have soared in demand since all 112,000 tickets sold out within hours.

Despite
Glastonbury organisers going to great lengths to stop touts buying tickets and reselling them at inflated prices - including
demanding photo ID on entry - a number of the passes have already been posted for sale on sites like eBay.

The 'Glastonbury
Crusaders' are targetting these sales, emailing both the seller and bidders, warning them about the strict new ticket
conditions and telling them they may be turned away from the festival without a refund if they do not have the correct
ID.

If they receive no response they alert festival organisers about the sale. Glasto bosses confirmed
that some tickets had already been cancelled as a result of the group's actions.

It is believed the group were
formed over the official Glastonbury message boards, which are hosted and powered by Virtual Festivals. Protecting the spirit
of the festival has been a long-running goal for much of the online community. Click here to check out VF's message boards.

One of the crusaders, 'Woodland Maiden' from
Sussex, said: "Glastonbury Festival is one of few events that donates huge amounts to charity. So many people work
hard to create the essence of Glastonbury. Touts tarnish that essence and as such, must be stamped out! Until eBayco-operates
with the festival in preventing the resale of Glastonbury tickets, the Crusaders must carry on!"

Last year, Glastonbury
bosses told every ticket holder that they must bring ID to prove that they were the person who bought the tickets, however
it led to a number of touts supplying fake ID with the tickets they sold on. This year festival-goers will have to supply
photo ID in a bid to stop that happening.

A spokesman for Glastonbury said: "What the Crusaders are doing is separate to us. They are passing information on
to us, which we pass on to ticket agencies and tickets have been cancelled. We have maybe passed on 20 addresses. We are pleased
that it is an initiative that has come from the public."